A provincial court in the eastern city of Lahore Monday ordered authorities to free three men accused of links to al-Qaida – two naturalized Americans and one Canadian citizen – saying the prosecution had failed to justify their detention, court officials said. The ruling came on a motion filed by a prominent family against the detention of Dr. Ahmad Javed Khawaja and four other members of his family. It wasn’t immediately clear whether they had been released. Khawaja, a gastroenterologist who lived in the United States from 1972 to 1983, and his four family members have been in custody since Dec. 19, when they were picked up in a joint police-FBI raid on charges of sheltering suspected al-Qaida operatives. Those ordered freed were Omar Karar Khawaja and Khyzar Ali – Khawaja’s two sons – and Usman Ali Khawaja, his nephew. Khawaja’s sons are American and his nephew a Canadian national. The court said it would rule on the fate of Khawaja and his brother later. In his short order, Judge Javed Buttar said the three men should be “set free forthwith if not required in any other case.” Full Story
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